FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 17, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
Matted LIC owner says Amazon HQ2 project gives area a ‘strong voice’
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Donna Drimer didn’t need to see the full
page advertisements and the slick mailers
sent to residents of western Queens as
part of Amazon’s recent charm off ensive
reminding the public of the 25,000 jobs
it will bring to Long Island City with the
construction of its HQ2 campus around
the Anable Basin, right on the doorstep
of her store.
Drimer was also aware of Amazon’s
tweet that those jobs will generate $27 billion
in new tax revenue and help fund
vital services like Mayor de Blasio’s universal
health care plan.
“Th e truth of the matter is I’ve been 110
percent behind this project since it was
announced in November,” Drimer said.
“Th e truth is for me to survive, I need the
business.”
Drimer opened Matted LIC at 46-36
Vernon Blvd. in 2009 and for the last
decade she’s sold contemporary art and
photography, custom framing, eclectic
jewelry, artisan items and gift ware for
men, women and children while hosting
art shows and events for local painters
and photographers.
“Starting 10 years ago, this was all
industrial with very little residential and
now with the residential picking up we
were still treated like second-class citizens
here in LIC,” Drimer said. “Now with
Amazon in our back pocket, our voice is
a little stronger on issues like infrastructure,
transportation and lack of schools.”
Matted LIC is the type of shop where
customers and friends will stay awhile
and have conversations about the neighborhood.
“Interestingly enough, when people do
bring up Amazon all they talk about is
what eff ect it might have on the No. 7
subway,” she said.
Th is week Drimer attended a luncheon
hosted by an Amazon outreach team with
Photo courtesy of Matted LIC
25 other small business owners from the
neighborhood and what she heard only
confi rmed her support for the project.
“Th ey really wanted to hear our issues
and they want to be part of the community
and not a plague on it. Yes, they will
have 25,000 employees who will be out
on the streets and hopefully they will
come into my shop and make purchases
that will help beautify their new homes,”
Drimer said. “Th ere’s always good and
bad, two sides to every coin, we know
this. But now I know that they will build a
campus cafeteria that is too small for all of
their employees to encourage their workers
to venture out into the community.”
And Drimer believes it’s true because
her brother was an Amazon employee in
Seattle 15 years ago and saw how they put
the community fi rst, she said.
“Plus they will give artists space, they
don’t want to push anyone out of the
neighborhood,” Drimer said. “Amazon
took out a 10-year lease on the Citi Tower
and they’ll move in 700 workers by the
end of 2019 and 3,000 by the end of 2020.
I was always for this project but to hear all
this coming from them directly was a real
breath of fresh air. Look, change is inevitable
and if it wasn’t Amazon it was going
to be somebody else. At least they care
about the community.”
Amazon will be sending out another
mailer shortly emphasizing the “tens of
thousands of indirect jobs in construction,
food service, human resources and
retail.” It does have one feature that is different
from the original mailer. It urges
residents to call state Senator Michael
Gianaris at his district offi ce and “tell him
to support the project” for the fi rst time.
“It’s ironic that Amazon wants billions
of our taxpayer dollars and is spending so
much to convince the people of western
Queens that it is entitled to those dollars,”
Gianaris said in response to the mailer.
“People will not be fooled by slick advertising
— they will continue to be against
the Amazon deal and so will I.”
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